If you are in the right place at the right time, investing in real estate can be one of the most profitable and enjoyable forms of medium to long term investment there is. Depending on your circumstances, international real estate investment may prove preferable, for a number of reasons, despite the additional challenges it can sometimes pose. Diversifying your investment portfolio by buying property in several different countries, for example, can help to cushion you against downturns in any one particular market. Even if you cannot afford to do this, you may find that you will be able to snap up an incomparable bargain in an up-and-coming country which would never have been available in your country of residence. (Unless you happen to have the good fortune to be resident in a newly popular emerging market country, of course!)

If the words 'offshore banking' conjure up for you a shadowy figure wearing a Panama hat and crumpled white suit, smoking a cigar, and probably sipping cocktails from a hollowed out coconut, then you've clearly been reading too much John Grisham. Stop it. It isn't good for you. In an increasingly globalised world, in which more and more of the population are becoming internationally mobile, and need financial services which reflect their circumstances, offshore and international banking has moved on. The growing need for international banking on both a personal and corporate level has led to an increase in the number and quality of financial centres, both offshore and on, and the diversity of financial services offered.